GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, September 7, 1992
September 7, 1992, Monday
AFTER 10 PAINFUL YEARS, FAMILY KEEPS PROBE ALIVE
FRANK SANTIAGO; Des Moines Register
Ten years ago, Johnny Gosch, 12, who was delivering the Des Moines Sunday Register, dropped from sight a few blocks from his West Des Moines home.
His abduction on Sept. 5, 1982 - and that of Des Moines Sunday Register carrier Eugene Martin, 13, across town on Aug. 12, 1984 - has confounded local police, state and federal agents, private investigators, clairvoyants, weekend detectives and others ever since.
After hundreds of so-called leads, rewards that once totaled more than $ 200,000, file cabinets full of investigative reports, and now confessions of a man in a Nebraska prison, there have been no arrests, no suspects.
''Johnny and Gene are probably a one-of-a-kind case,'' says John Rabun, vice president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, based in Arlington, Va.
Department of Justice figures say that of the 3,200 to 4,600 abductions of children each year by strangers, most are short-term incidents. About 200 to 300 are kidnappings in which the child is kept overnight or is moved a long distance for ransom, kept permanently or killed.
Gosch and Martin would be included in the smaller group, but likely would be in a much smaller sub-grouping, says Rabun.
Authorities have not linked the cases, although they have many similarities. The boys were about the same age. They were delivering newspapers early Sunday in residential neighborhoods. They were close to a newspaper drop where they had picked up bundles of papers.
''These two cases are so close as to be identical,'' says Rabun, who has investigated hundreds of missing children cases. ''There is a possibility Martin was a copycat of Gosch. But what happened to the boys essentially leaves more questions than answers.''
Noreen and John Gosch have braced themselves for the worst.
''If he has gone through 10 years of pornographers and pedophiles as we've heard the stories, I hope he isn't alive,'' says John Gosch. ''But on the other hand he is still our son. We'd love to have him back, but what condition he would be in is probably undesirable.''
The decade has left permanent scars. The Gosches haven't given up the search. Their frustrations are more obvious. They don't know how the story will end - or if it ever will.
''Divorces among parents of abducted children are pretty high. This is horribly damaging to all members, and it takes different forms and aberrations,'' says Rabun.
Sitting in their living room, a few blocks from the sidewalk where their son's wagon was found with its bundles of undelivered newspapers, the Gosches have beaten the odds.
''You have a set of parents who are still together and who haven't totally destroyed themselves over the situation,'' John Gosch says.
The Gosches have two grown children, one male, the other female, but they insist that their identities be kept confidential.
''I don't think we could have done much more. We weren't trained policemen. We just did what we thought was right. We got the word out and we started searching,'' Noreen Gosch says.
The family successfully campaigned for legislation to have police move quickly on missing children cases. They have appeared on national television, at forums and in national magazines speaking for children and warning about the threat of abductions.
They have sold candy bars, had bake sales and garage sales to raise more than $ 100,000 for private investigators and handbills and posters. They have cashed insurance policies and emptied their savings to continue the search.
''We had resigned ourselves to the fact that Johnny was dead and that we would go to our graves not knowing what happened. All of a sudden the name Paul Bonacci came out of nowhere and we had the truth. There were things that he said he could not know'' without having been involved with Johnny's abduction.
Bonacci is an inmate at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln who claims he participated in the abduction. His story got wide publicity a year ago.
The 24-year-old Bonacci is to be released in October after serving time for sexually abusing a minor. A grand jury labeled Bonacci, said to have multiple personalities, ''a pathetic figure.''
The Gosches believe Bonacci and his story that their son was taken for pornographers, driven to a house in Sioux City, then to Colorado and to a fate where his personality and appearance have been dramatically changed.
West Des Moines police have not interviewed Bonacci and have no plans to do so.
''It wasn't that we didn't check out what he was saying,'' says West Des Moines Police Lt. Gerry Scott. ''We interviewed family members to determine if there was anything that he was saying that was remotely connected to the case and we just couldn't find anything.''
Scott says the FBI also claims Bonacci is not a credible witness.
Meanwhile, Noreen Gosch says the grieving process never ends.
''Even after 10 years when I hear that a body has been found or something like that my heart turns over. You think, 'Is this it?' But nothing happens. Then it starts all over again.''
], but I get the idea its from his his 'law practice' and not from the Franklin case in particular. Perhaps, his book profits pale in comparison to the practice. It wouldn't surprise me if he donates all his book profits. Can a lawyer benefit from pro bono? Didn't Decamp go pro-bono on all the kids he represented?
